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Friday, January 27, 2017

Nut Free Energy Balls - Great for kids & post workouts

I love protein balls, they seem to be the on-trend thing to eat at the moment, up there with avocado!! My kids adore the balls I make for them, most of the time consisting of dates, almonds, and a nut butter.

I recieved a healthy eating newsletter from their day care centre today and there was quite a long list of banned foods for safety, and to promote healthy eating. I realised that I couldn't send their normal protein balls in their lunch boxes as nuts are banned in the centre, for understandable allergy reasons. So today I set about making the balls using maple syrup as the core binding ingredient, and milled chia seeds and sesame seeds in place of my usual nuts.

I'm sure it's easy enough to chop and change ingredients according to availability and preferences. For example tahini paste could be used in place of the usual nut butter. or maple syrup Anyway, these protein balls went down a treat. There was a spoon of cacao powder (which hopefully isn't frowned upon in the centre). This powder was gifted to me my a very dear friend when he came to stay with us during the summer. This is a highly prized powder from a chocolatier, Hazel Mountain Chocolate the Burren in Co Clare, so I use it very sparingly. It's chocolate in it's purest unrefined form.

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About Me

My name is Serena and i'm a self confessed food addict!! I'm a wife, a mom to a young toddler, and a bed and breakfast owner in Killarney in South West Ireland. I get a kick out of cooking for loved ones and in my job I get to cook for different people from all over the world on a daily basis. I am constantly experimenting and my guilty pleasure is reading cook books in bed.
I'm quite health and low fat conscious most of the time. I do believe if you are healthy 80% of the time, the rest of the time is reserved for treats. Afterall life is too short not to enjoy cake! This is reflected in my recipes which are mostly low fat, but there are a few naughty tasty recipes also.
I was a fussy eater as a young lass, using ketchup to disguise the taste of food, still today I use ketchup like its going out of fashion, though always just in the privacy of my own home.I promise to leave the ketchup at home in these recipes :)